The Election Commission of Pakistan has formed a “high-level” committee to investigate the election rigging allegations levelled by Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha.
The high-level committee will comprise senior election commission officials, including the secretary, special secretary, and additional director general law, according to a press release.
The decision was taken in a special meeting convened after the Pindi commissioner’s damning revelations on Saturday. Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and Punjab ECP member Babar Hasan Bharwana attended it online.
A senior member commission would preside over the committee.
The committee will record the statements of returning officers and district returning officers and present a report to the commission within three days.
It further said a decision on whether any legal actions — including contempt of ECP — would be taken against the Pindi commissioner would be made after analysing the findings of the report.
In a press conference on Saturday, Chatta stepped down from his position and claimed that he made returning officers under him to change results for at least 13 MNA candidates in Rawalpindi Division.
Chatta said deserved capital punishment. In a rather dramatic way, he said he should be hung at Rawalpindi’s Ketcheri Chowk.
The Rawalpindi commissioner also claimed that candidates who were losing the election were declared winners with a lead of 50,000 votes each.
Reporters asked when ballot papers were being stamped with fake stamps did he inform anyone that a wrong was being committed.
Chatta said he was accepting the entire blame for the ‘wrongdoing’ but he was also telling the reporters that the chief election commissioner and the chief justice of Pakistan were also fully involved “in this”.
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He was keeping mum when asked which party won the elections if the results were changed.
Later, the Rawalpindi police detained the Rawalpindi commissioner.
But CJP Qazi Faez Isa and the ECP have rejected such accusations.
“None of the ECP officials asked the Rawalpindi commissioner to change the election result,” the commission said in a statement.
In an informal conversation with reporters in the federal capital, the CJP said: “These are baseless allegations without any proof and evidence. You can accuse me of anything.”
